Cosmetic and toiletry products comprising a gel phase and a second emulsion phase have been disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,335,103 to Barker et al. and in U.S. Pat. No. 6,213,166 to Thibiant et al. Such products are useful for numerous reasons, including but not limited to the visual effect produced.
Such gel-based products known in the art generally tend not to be stable, that is, they do not maintain their visual appearance when subjected to alternating freezing/thawing conditions or to variations in temperature. Furthermore, such gel-based products generally cannot include two incompatible active ingredients in the same composition.
In accordance with teachings in the art, one of ordinary skill would expect that a multiple-phase product where the two phases are emulsions with similar continuous and discontinuous phases would not be stable, and instead the two emulsions would migrate into one another. There exists a need in the art to be able to provide a multiple-phase product made with two distinct emulsions where the product is both visually and physically stable. Advantageously, the visually and physically stable compositions of the present invention comprising two or more discrete emulsions make it possible to incorporate into the composition otherwise incompatible ingredients, each providing a benefit to the end user.